The Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team provides a vital emergency, search and rescue service across the whole of the Northumbria Police area. This is a vast and largely remote and unpopulated area encompassing all of Northumberland and Tyne & Wear, measuring approximately 5000 square kilometres.
Team members are all volunteers and are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to respond to a wide variety of incidents including:
- Mountain search and/or rescue – for missing/injured walker
s, fell runners, mountain bikers and other outdoor enthusiasts, in summer and winter conditions. - Non-mountain search – for high risk, vulnerable or despondent individuals missing from home in urban and rural areas (e.g. elderly individuals with dementia, those suffering from mental illness and young children).
- Non-mountain rescue –in ‘difficult to access’ areas (e.g. body recoveries, rope access).
- Water search and rescue – for
kayakers/canoeists and other water related incidents, where bankside searching is required. - Resilience – response to severe weather events (e.g. snow bound motorists, flooding events and wild fires).
Although voluntary in nature we pride ourselves on the professional service which we provide.
NNPMRT has had a busy year responding to incidents, with 150 call outs in 2020, and 97 within the first six months of 2021.
The Team has adapted
to working within COVID protocols, and has continued training with many sessions online and others delivered within small groups in private outdoor areas, doing their best to keep skills up and ready to respond. Some training has been impossible to deliver safely, and some members have been unable to attend due to the need to shield and so the Team needs to raise money to step up training to recover from this challenging year.
The team is made up entirely of around 40 volunteers who give of their time freely and without financial reward. Team members are committed individuals, outdoor people, who already have a high degree of competency in outdoor skil
ls and are keen to 'put something back' into the activity which they enjoy. The team train regularly and members are expected to attend at least 50% of all training in order to consolidate and develop their skills and remain on the call-out list. There are opportunities for members to extend their skills with advanced training in a number of discreet areas of team operations.
COVID-19 restricted training over the last year, with online and small group sessions dominating. The Team now needs to step up its training to address potential 'skill fade'. Members were unable to revalidate certified training and we now need to address the backlog of new and revalidation training.
A £5,000 award from Calor would fund courses such as:
- Rope Rescue Supervisor and Operator

- Off-road driver training
- Winter skills, including avalanche rescue
- Water rescue
- PPE checking
The Team has also recently recruited new volunteers that need to be trained to become operational. We then need to kit them out with Team clothing and equipment. It will cost the Team £3,140 to purchase their helmets, waterproof jackets and softshell jackets. Additional funds raised through crowdfunding, could help with these purchases.
Each year the Team has to raise £40,000 for core costs through fundraising, grants and securing donations. All of our fundraising is done by volunteers within the Team.
Any additional funds that you can help us raise will help the Team cover these core costs which are usually covered by fundraising events in the summer months, most of which have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These include insurances, communication costs & IT, medical equipment, PPE, technical kit that needs replacing due to wear and tear (e.g. ropes, harnesses, stretcher accessories, slings, helmets), and vehicle equipment that needs replacing after use (e.g. body bags and smoke flares).
In October we need to renew our SPOT tracker subscription, (£3,000), our SARMAN licence (£400) and drone insurance (£350). Additional funds raised could be put towards these costs.
During the public supporting period for the Calor Rural Community Fund the Team have been very busy with call outs, training and supporting events. The incidents below show how varied our work is, and how widespread across the region:
9th June - Rowlands Gill
Search for a high risk missing person, fortunately located near to incident control and assessed by a Team Doctor.
10th June - Hadrian's WallWalker sustained a leg injury. Extracted using a Team vehicle to an awaiting ambulance.
12th June - Kielder
Medical emergency, which was fortunately dealt with by a community paramedic who managed to access the casualty whilst the Team was on route.
20th June - Fontburn ReservoirWalker sustained a lower leg injury, and was evacuated by stretcher to a Team vehicle, to be handed over to an ambulance.
29th June - Simonside
Search for a lost walker.
The Team have also had medical and search training sessions, been undertaking kit checks, and supporting the Chevy Chase (providing medical and emergency cover).
Call 999. Ask for the Police, and then request Mountain Rescue.
Our highly trained volunteers are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.